College Football Musings -Week 7

Larry Vettel

10/19/2009

Two top teams lost while several others had to scratch and claw their way to wins. Twenty-nine AP voters change their minds about several teams, while Heisman voters have some confusing situations. The ACC might have a major imbalance problem while the Buckeyes are sorta falling apart. Now let's move on to our weekly musings.

AP Upheaval ---- An amazing 29 AP voters switched their number one votes to Alabama pushing the Crimson Tide ahead of the Gators and into the No. 1 spot this week. There's no arguing that Alabama was much more impressive against Arkansas than Florida was, but the voters seemed to ignore the circumstances. Alabama played the Razorbacks right after a scrimmage with North Texas, giving the Tide essentially an extra week to prepare. Florida on the other hand played the Hogs after a brutally physical game at LSU. That's a big difference. By the way Florida's win over LSU is the only win that a current top 10 team has over another current top 10 team. Still, the order of the top two is meaningless.

Back off Boise ---- The voters also dropped Boise State a notch after its less than dominating win over Tulsa. The Cowboys are still in great shape to earn a BCS invite, but getting into the top two for the title game won't be happening. In fact it's more likely that no. 10 TCU bounced Boise State from the BCS if they win out. The Horned Frogs are playing a much tougher schedule and if they can handle BYU and Utah they would deserve the invite.

ACC Coastal in Command ---- The good news for the ACC is that the league has three teams in the top 15 with Miami (No. 8), Georgia Tech (No. 11) and Virginia Tech (No. 11). The bad news is that all three of them are in the Coastal Division setting up a possible mismatch in the ACC Title Game. To add to the ACC woes, the only unbeaten in conference play is 2-0 Virginia which opened the season losing to William and Mary. Virginia is in the Coastal Division too.

Colt McCoy Says It All ---- The Texas QB couldn't do much in the low scoring, physical battle between the Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners. McCoy had to settle for 160 total yards in the 16-13 Texas win. He described the game perfectly. "It's like an SEC game, it felt like," McCoy said to ESPN's Pat Forde. "The defenses were great." The Texas/Oklahoma game was pegged as a shootout between Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford and Heisman hopeful McCoy, but Bradford re-injured his shoulder early and McCoy struggled throughout.

Heisman Anyone? ---- Bradford obviously won't be a repeat winner of the Trophy and running back Jahvid Best long ago fell out of grace. Perhaps Alabama Sophomore Mark Ingram ought to get a serious look. Ingram raced through South Carolina for 246 yards Saturday, giving him 558 yards in the last three games. Unless Tim Tebow or Colt McCoy starts racking up some big performances Ingram could become a strong possibility.

Bye Bye Buckeye ----Ohio State is out of the picture much earlier than usual after a dismal loss to previously 1-5 Purdue. The Buckeyes have no semblance of an offense with Terrelle Pryor who sometimes is in the pocket and sometimes is running a spread. If they get it figured out they could still make it to the Rose Bowl, but it'll be the first game in Pasadena in 2010, not the big one a week later.